It’s Time to Shit Bricks – Dead Space 3

Dead space is a game I’ve been keeping my eye on after Resident Evil became less of a horror. It took the monsters that were in ‘The Thing’, and put them on a ship in the middle of space, with just you and them.

In the first game Isaac Clarke, the protagonist of Dead Space, destroyed the Marker that was extracted by the Ishimura. The Marker is a artifact central to the massive religion Unitoligy (the bathshit crazy religion spin off to Scientology?). During the final scenes he is attacked by visions of Nicole. Dead Space 2 picks up with Isaac in a mental asylum, remembering nothing from the previous three years. Scientists used Isaac’s knowledge of the Marker to build another one on a colony on one of Saturn’s moons. After another breakout of necromorphs, Clarke does battle once again to survive.

Dead space 3 now continues with Clarke trying to destroy the Markers after Unitology has created markers on several planets. He is informed of a planet that stopped an uprising of necromorphs from a previous generation and the answer may lie there to destroy them once and for all.

He heads for the planet Tau Volantis. The first 30% of the game revolves around Isaac and his crew trying to build a ship to enter the planets atmosphere after their own is damaged by space mines. Players will find this part of the game similar to the previous games, as the settings of the ships are pretty much the same. The zero g rooms and the flying in space is a nice way to familiarise yourself with the game.

A nice addition is the ability to build a gun essentially. As you find or craft parts, you can build a gun to your liking. It can be extremely powerful, super fast, or a brutal blade. The gun can be a combination of two parts, a top weapon and a bottom weapon. For example I first built a plasma cutter to handle the typical battle, and then a shotgun on the bottom for when they got close. I’m now rocking a six shooter pistol that freezes necromorphs after shooting them, with a light sabre like blade on the bottom. This customisation is awesome since it actually makes the weapon bench, a working bench!

I don’t understand why this level of customising wasn’t added to the suits you can wear. Again, like the others, you can upgrade your armor, air amount, stasis etc. I would have like to have seen the suits give you the ability to carry more stuff, choose to add more damage to melee attacks, or just run faster. Maybe next time.

The game itself retains that same horror feel but while aboard the ship it is predictable now. The second you see a vent, it’s obvious some weirdly disfigured Michael Jackson looking fella is going to jump out. Shooting off the various body parts still remains fun, and using the six shooter made me think of it being a weird western set in the future.

Thankfully when you reach the new planet things kinda change up. While roaming the cold planet, you must choose your battles carefully so you don’t freeze to death until you find the snowsuit. As you delve into the background of the planet and it’s people, things start to pick up. I’m not that far into the planet section but it is more entertaining than the ship, since I’ve seen it all in the previous editions and this is a welcome change.

Overall Dead Space 3 is a welcome addition that is still good fun but has lost its horror appeal for now. Hopefully it’ll pick up later. The new planet brings a fresh approach to the stale ship environments seen previously.

One thing to do before you begin the game is boot any previous Dead Space games you have, and Mass Effect. EA has thrown in some bonuses for people who have played them previously! Mass Effect players get a suit modeled on Shephards uniform, while previous Dead Space players get a custom built planet cracker line gun.